In the past, a number of sanitizing devices and spray devices have been proposed for utilization on toilets and bidets, with the Friedman Pat. No. 1,091,499 entitled "Bidet" and the Campus Pat. No. 1,663,111 entitled "Lavatory" being typical of the early prior art.
As pointed out in the Guidetti et al Pat. No. 1,872,278, entitled "Flushing Arm for Sanitary Water Closet Attachments," in such devices, water under pressure issuing from a nozzle will be projected upwardly, sometimes with a rearwardly inclined direction, such that fluid under pressure will strike directly against the body outlet of the occupant of the seat in connection with which the cleansing operation is to be performed.
In the Guidetti device, a water delivery arm is movable between two extreme positions, the underside of the rim of the toilet bowl or bidet bowl being just about the level that the nozzle will occupy. Guidetti expressed a concern with sanitary considerations with the earlier devices, so he concluded it to be preferable for the flushing or water delivery arm to remain normally in a position where the water used to flush the bowl cannot reach or contaminate the water delivery arm.
The Guidetti approach was to mount the arm on the toilet bowl, or at least support it by the toilet bowl in what he regarded as being a sanitary location. His water delivery arm was stated to be movable from an inoperative position above the bowl, to an operative position within the bowl, with the arm being subjected to both a translatory movement and a rotatory movement.
The later Guidetti Pat. No. 1,966,951 entitled "Sanitary Water Closet" repeated some of the same themes and involved a "pocket" being created in the upper part of a toilet bowl to accommodate the movable flushing arm.
The Lieber Pat. No. 3,845,509 entitled "Bidet-Commodes" involved a design usable either as a toilet or as a bidet.
All of these prior art devices involved designs in which the user had to go to the considerable expense of creating a location in his or her bathroom to accommodate a bidet, or else he or she had to undertake the expense of modifying an existing toilet or bidet in order to utilize the new features being made available.
As will be seen hereinafter, the present invention can be utilized quite effectively for a variety of purposes, without the user having to undertake any consequential expense, and without requiring a portion of a bathroom to be dedicated to a bidet that is unusable as a dual purpose bidet and toilet.